Lantana 'Miss Huff'

I enjoyed reading the other comments about Miss Huff. I love mine but she does get too big. Last year she was easily 5ft tall and just ...Read Moreas wide. I thought about relocating her but missed my window of opportunity this year. We had a mild winter and an unseasonably warm March this year so mine has already grown to 10 inches tall. I usually don't see that until well into May.

'Miss Huff' is a lusty gal, blooming in orange from late Spring until frost. She's been in my garden (zone 7b/8a) for over 5 years now a...Read Morend looks splendid against the pale yellow of my house.

The only time Miss Huff doesn't look terrific is during winter dormancy. I usually rake up the untidy leaves in winter, but I try to resist the urge to cut her back then because the woody stems might fill with water and freeze. And I want Miss Huff to return in all her bushy glory! The time to cut back the bare stems is when tiny new green leaves appear deep in the center of the plant in Spring.

If your Miss Huff becomes too large, (she's now at least 5' tall and wide and wants to spread to the neighbor's side yard), I found out she doesn't mind being whacked back to keep her where she belongs, although you'll have to battle the butterflies and hummingbirds.

Just make sure you have her sited in full sun and very well drained soil. Fortunately for those of us with miserable sandy soil, Miss Huff thrives in the stuff.

One warning: lantana leaves can cause dermatitis in certain folks; others may become uncomfortably itchy with contact. At least, the rabbits and deer leave Miss Huff alone, though!

2 plants each grew to 4'X4', and were overwhelming everything nearby, so I moved them - in August. Amazingly enough, they not only surviv...Read Moreed but came back this spring. Profuse flowers, sterile, drought tolerant, and hardy in 7B - excellent!

Summer of 2005 I bought a small plant in a quart-sized cup from a HomeDepot. It was labeled only "Color Mix" so I had no idea what it was...Read More, thought it was just a flower and planted in a flower bed.
It didn't do much that summer & died away with everything else when winter came.

Spring of 2006, to my complete surpise, it came back and over the summer grew into a large bush that produced gorgeous multi-colored flowers all summer.

Spring of 2007, I still had no idea what it was and cut it back to a stump in April. Mid-May now and no signs of green on it so I think I killed it. But now that I know what it is, I'm going to look for another to plant.

I forgot to post this last Spring: my 'Miss Huff' did NOT come back in 2005- z7b. I loved this plant and am thinking maybe it was a fluke...Read More- that I didn't have her in a good protected place. She was a baby plant after all. I am going to try again to grow her.

Reliably hardy here in Z7b - gets killed to the ground every winter but always comes back from the roots. It will grow to over 4ft high ...Read Morex 4ft wide by the end of the summer. Loads of flowers that attract bees and butterflies. Tolerates hot, dry conditions and not bothered by pests. 'Miss Huff' is self-sterile so it will not form berries and seed all over the place as long as there are no other lantanas growing nearby.

Love this plant. Very airomatic. I was amazed at how large this plant grew. I purchased a one gallon plant and in one summer it grew to a...Read Morebout 3 feet in partial shade! Beautiful blooms all summer into the fall.